Yale University Library Research Guides: Resources for Racial Justice: Race and the Bible

Race in Hebrew Bible

Can a Cushite Change His Skin?: An Examination of Race, Ethnicity, and Othering in the Hebrew Bible by Rodney Steven Sadler, Jr. By examining explicit biblical references to Cush and Cushites, a nation and people most modern scholars would deem racially "black," this book explores the manner by which the authors of the Hebrew Bible represented the Cushite, and determines whether differences in human phenotypes facilitated legitimating ideologies that justified the subjugation of this foreign Other.
Race, Racism, and the Biblical Narratives: On Use and Abuse of Sacred Scripture (Online) by Cain Hope Felder A critical essay from Stony the Road We Trod: African American Biblical Interpretation written by the project's editor, Cain Hope Felder, now in a concise stand-alone book.
Reimagining Hagar: Blackness and the Bible by Nyasha Junior Offers a reception history that examines interpretations of Hagar with a focus on interpretations of Hagar as a Black woman.
Black and Slave: The Origins and History of the Curse of Ham by David M. Goldenberg Studies of the Curse of Ham, the belief that the Bible consigned blacks to everlasting servitude, confuse and conflate two separate origins stories (etiologies), one of black skin and the other of black slavery. This work unravels the etiologies and shows how the Curse, an etiology of black slavery, evolved from an earlier etiology explaining the existence of dark-skinned people.

Reading While Black: African American Biblical Interpretation as an Exercise in Hope (Online) by Esau McCaulley A personal and scholarly testament to the power and hope of Black biblical interpretation. Argues that reading Scripture from the perspective of Black church tradition is invaluable for connecting with a rich faith history and addressing the urgent issues of our times.
Rescuing the Gospel from the Cowboys: A Native American Expression of the Jesus Way by Richard Twiss In his final work, Richard Twiss provides a contextualized Indigenous expression of the Christian faith among the Native communities of North America. He surveys the painful, complicated history of Christian missions among Indigenous peoples and chronicles more hopeful visions of culturally contextual Native Christian faith.
Santa Biblia: The Bible through Hispanic Eyes by Justo L. Gonzalez Explores how a Hispanic perspective illuminates the biblical text in ways that will be valuable not only for Latino readers but also for the church at large.
What Is Asian American Biblical Hermeneutics?: Reading the New Testament by Tat-siong Benny Liew Includes two chapters on race and immigration and Asian American identity in the New Testament.